Barbey-D'Aurevilly

Robert Gillan (University of Manchester)
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Jules-Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly was born in Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte on 2 November 1808. His ancestry in Normandy dated back several centuries; originally of peasant stock, his family bought its way into the nobility in 1756. The circumstances of Barbey’s upbringing were curiously mixed, his father’s austere, Catholic royalist views conflicting with his mother’s and grandmother’s gambling and with his uncle’s fondness for alcohol. The combination of religious and political conservatism and debauchery would later become a central feature of Barbey’s literature. The geographical and historical background of his birth, in particular the legends of the counterrevolutionary Chouan insurgency, would also resurface in his writing. However, during his adolescence, his views…

2440 words

Citation: Gillan, Robert. "Barbey-D'Aurevilly". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 November 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=250, accessed 19 March 2024.]

250 Barbey-D'Aurevilly 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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